Background
Alexander, Christopher was born on October 4, 1936 in Vienna, Austria.
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(The theory of architecture implicit in our world today, C...)
The theory of architecture implicit in our world today, Christopher Alexander believes, is bankrupt. More and more people are aware that something is deeply wrong. Yet the power of present-day ideas is so great that many feel uncomfortable, even afraid, to say openly that they dislike what is happening, because they are afraid to seem foolish, afraid perhaps that they will be laughed at. Now, at last, there is a coherent theory which describes in modern terms an architecture as ancient as human society itself. The Timeless Way of Building is the introductory volume in the Center for Environmental Structure series, Christopher Alexander presents in it a new theory of architecture, building, and planning which has at its core that age-old process by which the people of a society have always pulled the order of their world from their own being. Alexander writes, "There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always been. The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. And as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form as the trees and hills, and as our faces are."
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(Christopher Alexander owns what many now believe to be th...)
Christopher Alexander owns what many now believe to be the finest collection of early Turkish carpets in the western world, with perhaps half being the only specimens of their kind anywhere. In this richly illustrated, oversized volume--featuring four hundred illustrations, eighty in full color--Alexander takes readers on an engaging tour of his fabulous collection. Readers will see a 13th-century Seljuk Carpet with Dragons, a 15th-century Animal Carpet, a scarlet-niched Transylvanian Prayer Rug, a turquoise Lattice Carpet from Alcaraz, a 16th-century blue Medallion Keyhole Design from Bergama, a rare 16th-century White Field Bird Carpet, the dazzling color and brilliant geometry of a 15th-century Karapinar with Three Gulls, and perhaps Alexander's favorite, a 15th-century Star Karapinar with Flowers (whose designs he describes as "the high point of all Sufi art, the state of liberation, in which the artist is so free, that he is able to be completely natural"). In addition, Alexander elaborates on his theory that these carpets teach structure to artists and architects through the beauty of their form. This lavishly produced volume makes an important contribution to the world of rug scholarship. Equally important, Alexander's thoughtful meditations on these pieces will fascinate the many architects, artists, and planners who follow his work.
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(In The Abolition of Man (1944), C. S. Lewis called for a ...)
In The Abolition of Man (1944), C. S. Lewis called for a "regenerate science" that would "not explain away" when it explained and "remember the whole" when it treated the parts. This introduction to natural history responds to Lewis' call by instilling in the beginning student of biology a love for the beauty and intelligibility of the animal kingdom through the eyes of the classical naturalists. The writers whose works are presented here, including John James Audubon and Jean-Henri Fabre, were some of the greatest observational biologists of all time. They remain useful guides, for the advances in biological science that have happened since they wrote cannot invalidate our first-hand experience of organisms as unified living beings. Nature's Beautiful Order is intended for all students from the 6th through the 8th grades and will also be a fitting supplement for higher-level instruction in biology. In eighteen lessons, students are led through the animal kingdom from the invertebrate animals through the five great vertebrate classes to the culmination of the natural order, a consideration of man as the knowing animal and as a steward of Creation.
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(Christopher Alexander's masterwork, the result of 27 year...)
Christopher Alexander's masterwork, the result of 27 years of research, considers three vital perspectives: a scientific perspective; a perspective based on beauty and grace; a commonsense perspective based on our intuitions and everyday life.
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(In Book Three of this four-volume work, Alexander present...)
In Book Three of this four-volume work, Alexander presents hundreds of his own buildings and those of his contemporaries who have used methods consistent with the theory of living process. Containing nearly seven hundred pages of projects which have been built and planned in a number of countries over a thirty-year period, this book amply illustrates the impact of living process on the world. The book provides the reader with an intuitive feel for the kind of world which is needed to generate living structure in the world and its communities; its style and geometry and its ecological and natural character. The projects include public buildings, neighbourhoods, housing built by people for themselves, public urban space, rooms, gardens, ornament, colours, details of construction and construction innovation. These buildings, and the methods needed to design and build them, define living structure in a practical way that can be re-applied across a range of other projects.
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(Book Four presents a new cosmology that arises from the c...)
Book Four presents a new cosmology that arises from the careful study of architecture and art, and above all from the practice of the arts. It is a cosmology which places the I, our experience of self, as the linking stem that unites each individual with the whole, connecting consciousness and matter.
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(Textual Patterns introduces corpus resources, tools and a...)
Textual Patterns introduces corpus resources, tools and analytic frameworks of central relevance to language teachers and teacher educators. Specifically it shows how key word analysis, combined with the systematic study of vocabulary and genre, can form the basis for a corpus informed approach to language teaching. The first part of the book gives the reader a strong grounding in the way in which language teachers can use corpus analysis tools (wordlists, concordances, key words) to describe language patterns in general and text patterns in particular. The second section presents a series of case studies which show how a key word / corpus informed approach to language education can work in practice. The case studies include: General language education (i.e. students in national education systems and those following international examination programmes), foreign languages for academic purposes, literature in language education, business and professional communication, and cultural studies in language education.
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Alexander, Christopher was born on October 4, 1936 in Vienna, Austria.
Bachelor in Architecture, Cambridge University, England. Master of Arts in Mathematics, Cambridge University, England. Doctor of Philosophy in Architecture, Harvard University.
Research assistant Joint Center for Urban Studies of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, 1959-1960. Instructor Harvard University, 1960-1961. Research associate Center for Cognitive Studies, Harvard University, 1960-1961.
Consultant village development planning Government of Gujarat, India, 1962. Consultant, researcher Massachusetts Institute of Technology Civil Engineering Systems Laboratory, 1960-1963. From assistant professor to full professor architecture University California, Berkeley, 1963-1999.
Director Center for Environmental Structure, 1967-1999. Advisor or consultant architect Governments of Israel, Mexico, Spain, other national and city governments and organizations internationally. Visiting professor or lecturer universities worldwide.
Invited artist at Forum Design, Linz, Austria, 1982. Chief architect The Eishin School, Tokyo, 1980-1982. Advisor to Nordic Council of Ministers, 1985.
(Christopher Alexander's masterwork, the result of 27 year...)
(Christopher Alexander owns what many now believe to be th...)
(In Book Three of this four-volume work, Alexander present...)
(Textual Patterns introduces corpus resources, tools and a...)
(Book Four presents a new cosmology that arises from the c...)
(The theory of architecture implicit in our world today, C...)
(In The Abolition of Man (1944), C. S. Lewis called for a ...)
Principal works include: (with Janet Johnson) Village School, Bavra, Gujarat, India, 1962. Master Plan for University Oregon, 1969. (with Murray Silverstein and Nacht and Lewis, Sacramento) Community Mental Health Center, Modesto, California, 1972.
Experiments in Sprayed Concrete, University California, Berkeley, 1978. The Linz Cafe, 1980, Fresno Farmers Market, 1983. (with Hajo Neis, Gary Black, Ingrid King, others) The New Eishin University, 1985.
Also private residences, low cost housing projects, factories, and numerous decorative works. Author: (with Serge Chermayeff) Community and Privacy, 1963. Thick Wall Pattern, 1967, Tres Aspectos de Matematica Y Diseqno, 1969.
(with Ronald Walkey, Murray Silverstein and others) A Human City, 1970. La Estuctura del Medio Ambiente, 1971. (with Howard Davis and Halim Abdelhalim) People Rebuilding Berkeley, 1975.
The Oregon Experiment, 1975. (with Son of Ishikawa, M. Silverstein, M. Jacobson, I. Fiksdahl-King, Son of Angel) A Pattern Language, 1977. The Timeless Way of Building, 1979, The Linz Cafe, 1981.
(with Howard Davis, Julio Martinez, Don Corner) The Production of Houses, 1985. (with Hajo Neis, Gary Black and Ingrid King) Battle: The Story of a Historic Clash Between World System A and World System B, 1985. Very Early Turkish Carpets, 1985, Sketches of a New Architecture, 1985.
(with Hajo Neis, Artemis Anninou, Ingrid King) A New Theory of Urban Design, 1985. The Nature of Order, 1985. Also numerous articles to professional journals Numerous of his works translated into Japanese, German, Spanish, French, others His works and writings the subject of numerous studies.
Member Swedish Royal Academy.
Married; two children.
